"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain menfrom injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." (Thomas Jefferson)

Monday, February 27, 2012

Buying a first home and building equity has been a large part of the American dream and remains one of the most cherished experiences for American families.

But sadly, for many American families, that dream has been crushed. The country's housing collapse has resulted in 10 million homes being worth less than their mortgage value. In Arizona, 47 percent is the real and tragic number and in Michigan, it's 35 percent.

Presidents Bush and Obama didn’t help. The government committed declared 700 financial firms and most of the nation's largest banks as "too big to fail." Through the TARP bailout, the government offered $500 billion to those banks and firms. Unbelievably, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich strongly supported this measure. I strongly opposed it.

This dramatic expansion of government was supposed to restore confidence in our largest financial institutions. But the market for mortgage-related securities is still in agony.

President Obama hasn’t learned from past mistakes. He is committed to Obamanomics, which grows government, explodes public debt, and slows economic growth and job creation. Now he wants even more government intervention to manipulate interest rates. The new plan may cost taxpayers hundreds of millions, perhaps billions.

Understandably, families who once thought about buying first homes are scared. I will restore their confidence in housing with my pro-growth economic plan, called by the Wall Street Journal “bolder and better” than Mitt Romney’s timid plan.

First, I will eliminate Obama's job-killing regulations and unleash America’s domestic energy potential. We need to promote economic growth boldly to get people back to work.

Second, to help families seeking a fresh start, I would allow deductions from taxable income on losses that come from sale of a principal residence. This will provide relief for families whose homes have lost value.

Third, I will eliminate the federal housing role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within five years. These two mortgage giants shoulder the blame for the housing crisis of 2008 and they will be eliminated. Ten top Fannie and Freddie administrators were paid $12.79 million in bonuses on top of their regular salaries last year. It’s unacceptable that the president has protected Fannie and Freddie.

Fourth, I’ll ask Congress to reform the Federal Reserve and make it transparent. Its loose monetary policy encouraged the housing bubble to grow, then its tight monetary policy made it burst. It picked winners and losers, and bailed out overseas banks with taxpayer dollars.

We should also narrow the Fed’s mandate and set, by law, a target of stable monetary growth. Doing so will focus the Fed on price stability instead of its current role of promoting risky policies which hurt American families and taxpayers.

Fifth, I will repeal the regulatory burdens of Dodd-Frank, which have hurt lending and smaller community banks, affecting the ability of small businesses to survive and create jobs. In classic but tragic Washington incompetence, regulations that applied to the entire financial sector omitted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, failed institutions still protected by the Democrats.

It’s hard to imagine the American dream that doesn’t include the opportunity for American families to buy their own home. Past policies have endangered this pursuit. President Obama’s policies continue to make it harder to restore the American dream for many hurting families. It’s time to get America’s housing market back on the right track.

119,058... that's the number of donations Barack Obama's re-election campaign is averaging per month. No one on the Republican side has even come close to Obama's level… until now!

Today I am proudly announcing our campaign has had over 100,000 donors since February 1!
And while that is exciting we aren’t resting on our laurels. We still need to catch Obama and clearly demonstrate Republicans are rallying around OUR campaign as the conservative alternative to President Obama.

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In addition to showing how strong we are this powerful sign of momentum will once and for all erase the myth that only Mitt Romney has the resources needed to defeat Barack Obama.

The truth of the matter is that despite raising $62.7 million since entering the race - Mitt Romney has "broken the bank" spending $55 million of it tearing down his opponents with shameless negative attack ads and published press reports indicate his campaign maybe struggling to raise money.

The above paragraph is the reason that small donors are going in big numbers to Rick Santorum. He is not asking for $2500 for a donation like Romney/Trump but is asking for donations if can spare $25 and up or even $10. His donations show a wide section of people are support Santorum while Romney's donations show that he is getting mostly donations at the $2500 level. Where do you find the most energy for a candidate? From the small donors who are made to feel part of the campaign. The emails from his campaign have been really impressive and make you want to donate to help win the nomination. Many donors will up their donations for the general when he runs against Obama and yes I think he will be the nominee in the end because his campaign is where you find the excitement. Just ask the people passing out yard signs in Oklahoma -- they sent out the email Saturday morning and immediately started receiving requests to put a sign in the year.

A little note about Rick Santorum. When he was here in Oklahoma he went to visit Boone Pickens to learn about energy. It was reported by one of our sports reporters who saw Pickens right after Santorum that he never asked Pickens for a donation. He just wanted to get information. That is so rare out of candidates that Dean Blevins put it on Twitter.

If you are a betting person, put your money on Rick Santorum to win Oklahoma.

According to Think Progress, “NRA: Practice Range” is billed as a “network of news, laws, facts, knowledge, safety tips, educational materials and online resource” for the organization.The National Rifle Association released a new app on Sunday that includes a gun range equipped with coffin-shaped targets, and the option for players to simulate using a military-grade sniper rifle.

The app includes what it calls “9 true to life firearms,” and allows players to download an MK-11 sniper rifle setting for 99 cents. The rifle can shoot 750 rounds per minute.

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Dems/GOP Fighting -- Will they Finally Work Together for the Country? Will replace this image when they do. (11/07/2012)

Quotes

"We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this." President Barack Obama, Newtown, CT, 12/16/2012

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"I don't think that the way to correct a spin from the left is to try to impart a spin from the right.... [A]n information flow distorted from the right would be just as much a disservice as distortion from the left. What we really should be after... is accurate information. And I don't see what any conservative or anybody else for that matter has to fear from accurate information." M. Stanton Evans

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Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY)

“For heaven’s sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you,” he told CNN back in May. “He can’t murder you. He can’t burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress.”

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"We are are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation.

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John Stuart Mill was a 19th century political philosopher:

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it." John Stuart Mill.